health
HHS awards $215 million to escalate vaccine distribution
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted March 14, 2011
The Dept. of Health and Human Services wants to speed up and increase vaccine distribution during seasonal influenza outbreaks and pandemics. The agency awarded contracts to two companies on Feb. 28 totaling $215 million to develop new types of vaccines and new vaccine manufacturing methods.
Novavax of Rockville, Md., received a three-year $97 million contract, and VaxInnate of Cranbury, N.J., received a three-year $117.9 million contract. Both deals can be extended for two more years.
"The 2009 H1N1 pandemic demonstrated the need for technologies that can provide vaccines more rapidly," HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said. "These next-generation flu vaccines hold the potential to be even more effective and to make the first and last doses of vaccine available sooner than existing flu vaccines by weeks and months, which can save more lives during a pandemic as well as during seasonal flu outbreaks."
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2011/03/14/hlbf0314.htm.
